Carnage (Roman Polanski, 2011)

New York City. Zachary, son of Alan and Nancy Cowan (Christoph Waltz and Kate Winslet) had a fight with Ethan, the son of Michael and Penelope Longstreet (John C. Reilly and Jodie Foster). Zachary hit Ethan with a tree branch and knocked out two incisors. His parents are invited at the Longstreet residence to resolve the situation and discuss how their kids can come to peace. The meeting starts of very pleasant but slowly the atmosphere is getting tenser and tenser and the situation between the parents starts to escalate. There is Alan Cowan, an attorney, who is constantly on the phone working on an urgent case for a pharmaceutical company. His phone calls are starting to interrupt the ‘peaceful’ negotiations more and more. When his wife is nauseated by Penelope’s cobbler and vomits in their presence (which is, believe it or not, hysterical) the two couples are slowly dropping their initial friendly manners and become more and more frustrated leading to a lot of sharp and funny dialogue and even mild violence, being the perfect example for their kids.

Carnage is based on the play 'God of Carnage' by Yasmine Reza. Adapting from play to screen requires solid acting since the core of the movie is based on dialogue and emotion. Luckily this movie has the perfect cast for the job. Let's start with the parents of the agressive Zachary. Big shot attorney Alan Cowan is played by Christoph Waltz, who was stunning as 'the Jewhunter' in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and hasn't left Hollywood since. He plays the somewhat superficial and rude attorney like he's been one for years. One will recognize features of the 'Jewhunter' in his mimicry and laugh. Kate Winslet, who plays his wife, a stockbroker(!), is responsible for one of the funniest scenes of the year, when she throws up all over the precious art books of the hostess. As usual, her acting is superb.

Jodie Foster and John C. Reilly play the host couple. Foster plays like she did in her best days and shows that she is an A actress. Her role of the somewhat tense idealistic peacemaker is played to perfection. She might even have the most convincing role in this movie.

Reilly is funny as the somewhat simpler Michael who sells toilet flush mechanisms and is afraid of rodents. As a result he got rid of his son's hamster by just dropping it on the sidewalk and leaving it there. This incident turns out to be a big deal for Nancy.

As a viewer you constantly wonder how the 4 actors are going to stay in the same room throughout the movie (which is a fair assumption if you either know it’s adapted from a play or if you saw the trailer). Some small but smart incidents make the Cowan’s walking back from the elevator to the room a couple of times and once Michael Longstreet brings out his single malt bottle, the two couples are kept in the room quite easily. This might seem a little unlikely at some points but shouldn’t spoil the fun.

The movie is set in New York, but most of it was shot in Paris because Polanski is still avoiding the U.S. for as much as he can after the notorious sexual abuse case. Say what you want about him but as a director he is still one of the finest. From the sixties (Knife in the Water, Rosemary's Baby), seventies (Chinatown) until present time (The Ghost Writer) he delivers excellent movies in a variety of genres. Carnage might seem to have a somewhat trivial directing (a lot of dialogue in a living room) but Polanski really makes a difference as a director here as well. Just look at some of the camera angles and close-up shots of the action he shoots especially at the end of the movie. It just adds that little bit of magic a good director usually has up his sleeve.

Thanks to a smart and witty screenplay Carnage entertains for the full 79 minutes and perfectly shows the strength and weaknesses of two couples, the clashes between husband and wives, men and women and last but not least the concerned and the lesser concerned parents.

8/10